I made a quick edit to chapter 8 its about the mana stone size and and extra line about the encyclopedia. In short humans are arrogant pricks, at least thats the vibe mc gets from the ency. And the mana stones he has are about 1,5 cm and 0.4-0.6 cm in diameter give or take.

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A week before my birthday I heard a knock on our small house door. I don't know why but my stomach tied in to a knot.

My mom was home so she went to open the door. As soon as she did some rude fellow forced his way in.

Ass>"Good day miss Clarice."

Oh would you look at that it mister goody two shoes from when I was 3 months old or so. His clothes are different but the shoes are the same. I still want a pair of those. He looked quite smug with an air of 'Who's the king? IM the king!!' yeah..where did I leave my big mana stone again, I never figured out how many kiloes of tnt equivalent the explosion was.

Clarice>"Mister Daniels, It is miss Coldsteel and please do come in. What can I help you with."

Mom didn't look happy. Normally she has a light smile of care and love, even when we march trough hate town. But now she looks all business and caution. I really hate the vibes between those two. My most recent stupid idea seems more and more necessary by the minute. Yeah time is measured the same. 24 hours a day, there are no weeks, so people rest when they need it or at least once every 10th day, if they want it or demand it from an employer. They can work all 368 days a year if they want

, or rest, if they can afford it.

Assfac...Daniels:"My apologies. Last time I came here I gave you a proposal. One for uhm" He paused an looked around with slight disgust."Better life"

Clarice>"I already told you last time, for whatever reason the commander wants me I would not go. I have a family to take care of."

The jacka..Daniels, man im 3 and already have problems with bad words..huh I guess life is a constant test against yourself. So Daniels had a vicious smirk.

Daniels>"As I said before your family will be generously compensated. For your uhm.." He took a glance at me"..services. After all it must be such a burden to take care of a little boy with such poor accommodations, not to mention the rumors floating around of your...family."

Clarice>"I appreciate the thought, but my answer is still no."

Daniels>"Very well. Do take care, some bandits have been roaming around these parts."

With his last words he left. Mom let out a big sight and her normal smile returned. I don't know what the so called commander want with mom. Sure she could freeze a man with her glare. I do hope its not something worse though cuz I don't know what will happen. Especially with the mentioned bandits. Normally I would take it as a courtesy warning but from this guy it sounded like a threat. Considering that our farm is the most remote from the village.

The days came and went, my birthday wasn't so wide;y celebrated this year just the usual, mom, dad and me having fun all day.

As time went on I decide to implement my imagination and designs which I made in my previous life due to too much free time. Now at least I can make some of them. I started to make some wooden parts from the most tough wood Rose is selling, axe breaker. It was a pain in the ass to shape properly, not mention the times I failed either by breaking the parts I was making or messing up the dimensions. When I asked dad for a bit of help he asked what I was making and I just said a 'very good crossbow', he didn't know with what my crossbow would be better than the normal ones so he helped me out with the carving.

Apparently there are tools to used to do measurements but the system was too close to the good old metric system, wight one seems closer to grams , good news for me at least I wont be inconvenienced. It wasn't perfect but I eventual made a ruler and a measuring tape. I always kept a smaller one in my journal. As for the journal itself I have been using it to record all my findings on magic and sketch some designs. All in english and the letters I was used to. Some times I would even mixed it up with another language out of paranoia. There were even some sketches about my crossbow.

 It looked like a crossbow and a roman ballista had a child. It was basically the ballista type of tension mechanism instead of a small steel bow, modified to allow adjusting of the tensile pressure the limbs had, or just adjustable draw weight. Combined with a lever system on the stock, with a rifle grip and trigger. It looked quite modern by my old standards, here it is high tech. For that reason I made it almost entirely out of wood is in case I had to dispose of it.

Author:"That is a qucik skethc to give you an idea of how the weapon looks.On the right is a 4:1 pulley system. The negative is that if with a normal single pulley system you pull the rope for one meter and the weight lifts with one meter, here you will use 4 times less strenght to pull but you need to pull 4 meeters for every 1 you want the weight to go up. I hope it makes sence here is a link

It's a draft at best so no Leonardo Da Vinchi stuff yet, if you want something better i might make a poll for it. On the botom is a roman ballista reproduction, for those who dont know what im talking about."

 The project was going quite well. I left the leaver reload system for last as it required the most components, it included even a safety. The basic model was hard to reload so I lowered the draw weight. Normally a crossbow has a lot more draw weight than a bow, due to its reloading style. With a bow you have to constantly keep the pressure of the draw weight on the main arm. But with crossbows it's just for moment until you secure the mechanism. And crossbows are as simple as you can get, mechanically speaking. The trigger and bow string holding latch are usually the same piece of metal. You pull the trigger and the latch comes down releasing the string.

 So normally higher draw weight will mean more damage. But it also draw length comes to play. Crossbows have higher draw weight than bows but lower draw length thats why a 30kilo bow can match a crossbow of 60kilo with 2 times less length.

 In short crossbows are easier to use than bows and even more powerful, but in the long run its like comparing a apples to oranges. They are both weapons with their ups and downs so its usually a preference choice.

 If yo ask me to choose between two armies, one professional crossbowmen and the other archers I would chose the archers. End game is that archers are better, but if both armies are noobs I would go with the crossbowmen. Putting a squad with my own crossbows on the table I would go with them from day one till the end. End game their weapons would be better than anything the others can have.

 My crossbow is a technological marvel, compared to the ones available in this human kingdom. It has double the draw length, variable draw wight and it requires up to 4 times less strength to fully draw, though these type of systems usually are time vs strength, in other words for times easier but it takes for times longer...unless you crank really fast. As I said it will be made of wood for now so I doubt that the components will hold together if I make of the planed features. I had to use 4 small steel pipes for the tension system for ease, I could redesign the system with wood but it was too much of a pain. Jack was happy to make them thou he didn't know what for.

The virst draft of it was a bit bulky at the front so I had to redisign it a bit, aftet that it was more ligter and compact. Still it was a bit bulkier than an averige crossbow and i need to balance it out later.

 The hardest part was finding proper fibers for the tension system, normally I would use some sort of rope but I want something better. So I went and asked around my only associates in the business world. They gave a lot of different ideas in the end I went with some really expensive fibers, some sort of spider silk. Strong and quite flexible with a bit stretchiness. Dad had to pitch in with the price after I convinced him, I may or may not have used puppy eyes. As for the price it was 2 silver for the whole bundle I took a bit more in case some riped during testing.

I was planning on custom rifled bolts. Normally a rifle has a spiral groves in the barrel which are used to make the bullet spin, and leave it with grooves of its own which force the air to make the bullet keep its rotation that air resistance will usually mess up. Kinda like a very weak and small version of a windmill. The bolt will use the same idea, I cant rifle the crossbow but I can rifle the bolt. If it works I can even make them smaller and lighter. The rotational force will make them pierce better and the spiral grooves will keep it steady even without fletching, if it works. But thats for later.

 None did. I was more afraid of the crossbow breaking that the fibers ripping during stress test, the crossbow can go up to 30kg of draw and the wood was slightly creaking so I go with 25. Dad had to draw when we got above 5 . And the result was quite nice. Remember that my practice target on which I used to throw stones? Well I used about 5kg draw on the crossbow or so dad said, I cant measure weight properly. When I used a small stone for ammo it shattered the stone plate.

 Dad was left speechless

 Johnathan>".....Sal...This weapon is quite uhm.... unique. When you told me you were making a crossbow I was expecting something simpler. But this is quite well thought out. I hope thats all you make of it. It is a lot more complex, not to mention a lot more expensive than the ones people generally use." His eyebrow twitched when he mentioned the expensive part. Though he looked genuinely worried. " I sure hope no one gets their hands on it, or you for that matter. If you made this when you are just 3, I cant imagine what you will achieve in the future. And some people will force you to work for them one way or another."

 Salion>"Don't worry dad, you and mom are the only ones who know about it, and trust me this isn't even properly made " As I said that I pulled out a something akin to a combat scope. It was just a pipe with some targeting reticules in it, I safely secured right next next to the string latch "Besides I already ordered something from Mark that will help me make the most important bits go in flames with a spark, even steel will melt, that is if he can get me the proper material"

 Johnathan>"Wont he suspect something?"

 Salion>"No. I only asked for a white metallic powder, and told him it wasn't from any noble metals but from another light and soft metal and said that you sent me...Oh and I asked Jack for all of the iron rust he can get his hands on. I also made a deal with him. If the price on the white powder is low enough I will show Jack how to purify iron and steel rust, in turn he will sell metal and make stuff for me cheaper. Either way, I can make the crossbow turn to charcoal in seconds, no magic involved."

 Dad was deep in thought for a while, before he answered.

 Johnathan>"You sure you weren't an alchemist?"

 I took another shot and tried to calibrate the sight.

 Salion>"Depends on your definition, the magic I was thought was very different from the one you know. It was exploring the very essence of nature."

 Johnathan>"How so?" He raised an eyebrow I guess I got his interest.

 Salion>"What if I told you that everything, from the tallest tree to the smallest pebble and everything living thing in between, ground, stars, even the air you now breathe was made from just 3 components just in different quantities, and no they aren't the elements"

 Johnathan>"That sounds unbelievable. Are you saying that what they teach about magic and the world is wrong?"

 Salion>"Sorry dad but you and mom left me teach myself magic, and still haven't gotten to the magic book yet."

 Johnathan>"It was your moms idea. She wanted to see how you would learn and grow and help only if you ask."

 Wait what?

 Salion>"I did ask you for help remember? Back then all you said was later, later or some other excuse"

 Johnathan>"That was before we got you evaluated."

 Salion>"It wouldn't have helped even if a asked anyway. My mana is so low that I can barely use it for something useful."

 I was losing my drive after the cit chat so I was packing the crossbow and loosening the fibers so that they don't stretch. The only minus of the my crossbow is that I don't have a cool name for it and it takes a lot longer to reduce the draw eight than to increase, both of those I hope to solve in the future. I wrapped it in a cloth and put it under my bed, right next to my wooden toys.

I was happy with my recent accomplishments. For 4 weeks a managed to make a never seen before weapon....sort of. Its still a prototype anyways. Once I'm done ill go back to magic research. This time I would read the magic book I should have enough mana for the basics